Roleplaying as Durmstrang Graduate iNPC Arjan Oberoi

T H E- A R J A N- O B E R O I

When: 29th November 2024 | Where: Wizard Trials Training Grounds

It was a couple of hours before the rest of the athletes would show up for training. Arjan stood there, in the empty locker room in front of his open locker, in a pair of joggers and a pair of trainers. There was a pile of magazines on the top shelf of his locker. Sports and celebrity magazines featuring various people in different industries that Arjan needed to look at. For him, it was research. They were going to be the magazines that featured him, after all.

If nothing else, Arjan Oberoi was determined to make a name for himself out there in the ‘real’ world. It did not matter how hard he had to work, he was going to become famous. The Oberoi family wanted him to take over one of the family businesses - on his mother’s side. It would have been an easy job, one where he instantly took over the company or took on a high position whilst being trained for the main CEO role. His mother was keen to see him in one of these roles, ready to become a successful owner.

In the same vein, Kamna had also shown Arjan the photos and ‘biodata’ of various women who were ‘suitable candidates for marriage’ for the past few months. It had gotten worse once he graduated, as she figured that he would join a family business and then pick one of the candidates to marry. She would arrange the whole event and before long, she had envisioned he would have a successful career and wife, just like he was ‘supposed’ to have.

Arjan, however, had a completely different life in mind. He had never wanted to join a boring family business. Hell, he did not want to do anything boring. Even Quidditch had grown far too easy for him. He wanted to make a name for himself, to become more than simply an ‘Oberoi’. It was hard to explain why this meant so much to him but it did.

Besides, the idea of an arranged marriage was something that suddenly felt a little odd to him. It was not something he bothered to consider. Hell, marriage in general was not something that he had even thought about. Arjan flirted and dated with many girls in the past but never once had it become anything meaningful or serious. They were not people he planned to marry or even spend more than a few dates with. In truth, most girls did not even get a second date but if they did, they never made it to an exclusive ‘girlfriend’ status - let alone ‘wife’.

It was something his mother had always mentioned but when his sister was still at home, she took a lot of the attention away from him. At the very least, he could easily divert a conversation to something she did or didn’t do - usually putting her in a negative way and trying to encourage their mum to focus on improving her image or finding a suitable boy for her instead. However, now that she was estranged from the family, all of Kamna’s attention was on him. She had no one else to distract her and that was really getting exhausting for him. It was a lot nicer to just work and focus on his growing career than listen to that nonsense.

He grabbed a fresh short-sleeve t-shirt and threw it over his head and arms. The locker was relatively empty of clothing, otherwise. A few clean clothing options and extra trainers. Unlike the lockers of his ‘colleagues’, there were no photos on his locker door of his family or loved ones. There were a few pinned letters, written by cute girls, that he used as inspiration to work hard. There was also a shelf in it, which contained some unopened letters as well as a bunch of postcards and paper.

Pausing for a moment, he blinked as he spotted a rather large envelope that had been added into his locker. He had received it a few days ago but just tossed it into his locker without much thought before. Now that he looked at it, he noticed that the handwriting was beautiful - it looked very much like a beautiful girl must have penned it. Did he know that for a fact? No, not at all. But he was judging based entirely on the handwriting. He opened the envelope to see a letter - and a poster of himself that had been cut out of a magazine. Whoever this was clearly had good taste if they had posters of him! He unfolded the letter and gave it a quick read. A smirk crossed his lips as he saw it was a girl, of course it was! It always was! She was pretty, he was sure of it, but he couldn’t think of what she might look like and the girl said that they had not met before, which was a shame.

Well, it was only good manners to write a reply. Arjan took a piece of gray and white marble coloured parchment, which had a thin silver foiled border around it. In the centre of the page, just under the top border, it also said “THE ARJAN OBEROI” in foil print. Taking a quill and black ink, Arjan sat down at the only table in the room to pen his reply.

He reread the letter. Ugh, why did she have to be from Hogwarts? Perhaps the worst wizarding school, in his opinion, but since he had graduated, he was aware that all of the other major schools were also now open to all kinds of monsters. But this girl, an Alyssa Salinger from Hogwarts, obviously had brilliant taste - she had chosen to be one of his biggest fans, so clearly she was smart and made good decisions.

Dear Ms. Alyssa,
It is an absolute pleasure to hear from you. As one of my biggest fans, I already know that you have the capability to succeed in the Quidditch world. You have impeccable taste and I would be happy to advise you on how to reach your goals.

There, that sounded polite and encouraging. Perfect for a fan! He had even complimented her - though it was mostly because if Arjan was her role model then she would clearly do well in life! It was kind of more of a compliment to himself. But still, she wouldn’t know that! Besides, this @Aly Salinger did say he was charming - and that was one hundred percent correct. Dang, she was pretty smart - clearly worthy of the Ravenclaw house that she mentioned she was in. He had to know what this fan of his looked like…

May I ask what you look like? You are correct in the assumption that I have visited Hogwarts several times in the past, and attended the International Summer Camps that Durmstrang and Hogwarts both attended. Perhaps I would recognise you but it truly is a shame that we did not get the pleasure to meet in person during these visits.

He was tempted to ask her for a photograph but that might be far too obvious. Instead, he opted to phrase his desire to know what she looked like as though he was trying to see if he would recognise her or had seen her in the past. Yes, now he looked like he did not solely care about his appearance. Let's be honest, if she wasn’t cute then he would stop replying. But he did not need to say that to her!

I am aware of Ravenclaw - a close friend of mine was one. It is a fine house, and it is a matter of pride that you play on the team. Perhaps, one day, you will be able to see how this Beater plays up close. My game tickets sell out very quickly but perhaps I can save one for you sometime. Are you hoping to continue playing as a Seeker professionally or would you consider another role on the team?

‘Close’ friend was a bit of a stretch but he knew that @Phaedra Stavrou had been a Ravenclaw student and that made it a decent house, because she was a pretty stunning woman. Arjan could not help but roll his eyes as he read the part of the letter about Aly being a Seeker. Ew. He hated Seekers, they were such glory seekers that did not deserve it at all in his opinion. Solely because his sister, Serena, had played in that role in the past and she was impeccable at it. She had never lost a game - he hated it. As a beater, you never get credit for winning or losing a game but without the beaters, Serena probably would have died out on the pitch and yet, she got the credit for the wins. Either way, he would probably help train Aly if she was cute. He just preferred if she was a beater!

With a massive grin, Arjan signed the poster that was enclosed in the envelope for Aly with a message in the corner of it that read as:

Aly,
Keep on flying,
The Arjan Oberoi

He also took one of the postcards from his locker, which was a headshot of him looking as handsome as ever. It was a fairly recent photograph, with his facial hair. The back of the postcard also had ‘THE ARJAN OBEROI’ in print foiled at the top of it, in the centre. On the postcard, he included a personalised message that read as:

Aly,
See you on the Quidditch Pitch one day,
Arjan

He opted to sign it off with just his first name, to make it seem far more personal. If she was a cute girl then he had to do his part to keep her interested, after all! He needed to make sure his biggest fans were well compensated!

With that, he finished off the letter.

As requested, I have returned your poster - signed, of course - and included a postcard that I thought you might appreciate too.

Keep on flying. Maybe I'll see you out there, one day.

And signed his name as ‘The Arjan Oberoi’, of course. Arjan double checked the letter and once satisfied with it, he folded the letter into a matching marble envelope, complete with the silver foiled name. He dropped the letter in the nearby mailbox that players could use - one of the staff at the training grounds would post it by owl later.

Arjan might have been a bit of a jerk but at the very least, he could pretend to be a decent human being. After all, he was nothing if not charming - the girl was astute in that judgement! He was also incredibly skilled at what he did. He was so good at being a beater that he was starting to find it a bit boring to play against others, they were just nowhere near as good as him! He liked a bit of competition and could only hope that there would be some out there soon. Either way, this fan of his would get some nice signed merchandise from him and that, obviously, made him amazing. He was so generous to his fans!

Of course, the letter was not helpful at all. He had given zero actual input on how she could get into such a career. But he was not really interested in giving advice to someone, unless he could get something from it. Why waste time otherwise? Hopefully, he would know she was a cutie and then, he would happily give her advice!

He put everything else away. Making sure that his shoes were tied properly, he grabbed a hoodie and pulled up the sleeves up to his elbows. He closed the locker, looked around the empty room. He did not care for his colleagues in the field but did appreciate having competitors, which is what he considered them. As such, he had shown up a few hours before practice to start getting some additional time in. After all, he was not going to be wasting his time simply because they were.

Heading out of the locker room and onto the pitch, Arjan started to warm up by jogging around the field several times. The chill of the November weather was definitely in the air, it would not be long before ice started to settle on the tips of the grass blades. Then again, it was before the sun had risen - around five in the morning. After jogging around the field thrice, he could feel the warmth starting to fill his body. Whilst running, he did a couple of arm exercises to make sure he was moving his upper body too. However, once he finished his run, he took his time to do a couple more stretches - making sure to take the time to warm up the muscles in his shoulder blades.

Once he had sufficiently warmed up his body, he made his way to one of the batting cages. The closest one, since everything was empty anyway. He threw his hoodie onto the side, grabbed one of the bats and entered into the cage. Bending his head at the neck to the left and then to the right, rocking it back and forth. Readying himself, he took a moment to look around. The batting cage was a full metal cage, quite large and with only one door - now closed behind him. Opposite the door, there were several target signs dotted around.

With a smirk to himself, he kicked open the large box near his foot. A bludger that was not buckled down quickly flew out. Gripping the end of his bat, he took a swing towards the bludger, whacking it towards the top corner in a single hit. As the bludger blasted away, he unbuckled the remaining ones, allowing two additional bludgers into the air.

One whizzed away, randomly deciding to go to the right. The other tried to come at him, causing him to take a step back and another swing. The three bludgers whipped around the cage, occasionally hitting the metal wiring and causing the entire place to rattle loudly. Bludgers were chaotic by nature, flying everywhere in a random pattern at such speed.

It did not take him long to get into a rhythm, quickly taking a few steps to close in on an incoming bludger, hitting it directly into one of the targets. Without hesitation, Arjan quickly ducked as he heard a sound behind him. It narrowly skimmed past him. The League Two Athlete steadied himself on his feet with his knee bent slightly, before kicking back from his front foot and taking a few steps back from the third bludger that was flying around. Gripping his bat tighter, he took another swing.

After about five minutes, he had hit three targets. It was a slow start but the bludgers were whizzing around in every direction and without a broom, it was a struggle to get them when they were up in the air.

He did contemplate using his broom but today, he wanted to specifically train from the ground for a bit as it limited his reach but forced him to use his entire body more to dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge! It was like playing dodgeball with balls that had their own mind and a bat to hit them against the targets, rather than catching them and throwing them.

Arjan spent the morning practicing by himself as he prepared for the rest of the day. In the afternoon, he had an hour-long meeting booked in with his PR team and then a few practice trials against some competitors. It was considered a “friendly” competition as it was not an official match but there was never anything friendly about them. But for now, he had to spend several hours in his own training.

Finished

OOC Notes: Mentioned letter can be found here. Letter content not included in wordcount.